What Your Pop Culture Preferences Say About Your Politics

The digital agency Engage analyzed “likes” from thousands of Facebook users to show how Americans may vote tomorrow. Which films, TV shows and albums are red and which are blue?

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Brian Snyder / Reuters - Susan Walsh / AP

The digital agency Engage teamed up with BuzzFeed to show what tastes in movies, music, TV shows and networks may reveal about how Americans vote. Engage’s app Trendsetter cross-referenced polling data and “likes” of these brands’ Facebook pages to produce the infographics. The bigger the circles, the larger the brand’s audience on Facebook and vice versa.

According to Engage and BuzzFeed’s model, Facebook fans of HBO’s The Newsroom are the most likely to vote for Obama and the most likely to go to the polls. Engage’s CEO Patrick Ruffini says that could make sense because the show’s audience is made up of news junkies. Justin Bieber’s Facebook fans may turn out to concerts in droves, but they are not likely to turn out at the polls on Election Day, according to the breakdown. That is probably because many of them are not old enough to vote. On the other hand, Facebook fans of classic artists like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Buffett, Marvin Gaye, even Mozart are more likely to go vote. Meanwhile, hits like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Seinfeld, and CSI bring together voters from both sides of the aisle.

“All we have really to go on is stereotypes, and we’re just going to figure out whether stereotypes are true or not,” Ruffini said. “Politics is a proxy for where you fit in culturally and each [brand] represents a different audience and culture.”

(MORE: Polling and Social Media Collide with ‘Social Polling’)

Courtesy of Engage

Courtesy of Engage

Courtesy of Engage

Courtesy of Engage